Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has refused a demand by the US to withdraw his police from the northern part of the country, where their presence has sparked violent protests. His move risks angering an ally that has supported his country since its creation and puts the premier in a precarious position. Kosovo relies on the US and other allies for security, economic support and the further development of its international recognition. Meanwhile, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic received backing from traditional allies Russia and China in the ongoing dispute. Long cajoled by the US and the EU for harbouring close ties with Moscow and for eroding democratic rights in Serbia, Vucic also got a boost from the US admonishment of his rival.
Kurti is one of Kosovo’s most popular politicians, with a reputation for driving out corruption. Unlike Kosovo’s previous top leaders, he was a political dissident, not a guerrilla fighter. He is a former terrorism convict and was beaten and held as a human shield during the NATO bombing campaign that pushed Serbian forces out of Kosovo in 1999. In 2020, he blamed Richard Grenell, a special envoy in Serbia-Kosovo talks under the Trump administration, for the collapse of his government.
Kurti has crossed important allies, ignoring calls to cancel local elections that triggered protests from the ethnic-Serb majority in the north of the country. When Serbs boycotted the votes, Kurti again ignored concerns from his backers and installed ethnic-Albanian mayors in Serb-dominated towns, resulting in clashes between Serb protestors and NATO peacekeeping troops. Despite Blinken's rebuke, Kurti called it “unfair, wrong, hurtful and naïve” in a social media post, underscoring his maverick attitude towards allies not used to being spurned by a fledgling nation they have tried to support since its declaration of independence in 2008.
Apart from Blinken's unusually harsh rebuke, the US also excluded Kosovo from the NATO-led Defender Europe military exercises planned for this year in Romania. These steps against Kosovo symbolise a warning to Kurti to avoid expanding the central government’s influence over the ethnic-Serb areas of Kosovo. They also indicate headwinds for Kurti’s efforts to push Kosovo further down the road to EU entry. For that to happen, he must overcome Serbia’s refusal to recognise Kosovo, a stumbling block that could have been addressed by the EU-mediated talks, which were seeking a solution but have now been derailed by this month’s clashes.